Introduction-E

After that you got pregnant?
Saullu: Yes, it was the same for me and my mother. Back then it seems we didn’t get
pregnant right away. But these days everything seems fast. It’s as if everything is rush,
rush, rush in the world.
I wonder if this was from breast-feeding.
Saullu: Yes, we always breast-fed.
Was that the reason menstruation took so long to start?
Saullu: When I adopted a child, I automatically took my breast out to feed, forgetting
that I had to feed it from a bottle, as breast-feeding had been my way of life with my
own babies. I would wake up during the night attempting to feed from my breast. I used
to have a lot of milk when I was breast-feeding. When we were younger, we used to be
told that we should wipe our hands often on the front flaps of our amauti or parkas,
when we were out berry picking unless they were really greasy and dirty. I used to do
that and it worked for me. I had a lot of breast milk. I have fed a lot of newborns my
milk.
Even when they weren’t your own?
Saullu: I fed a lot of babies that were not my own.
While at the same time having your own baby?
Saullu: Yes. Even as they grew, I still had milk. When a mother had a second child, the
first child would stop feeding from her. Even if she cried for the breast, she would not
be given it. It is too much work to breast-feed two at the same time.
Did you breast-feed your youngest child the longest?
Saullu: Of course. Only when he became aware of himself and became shy, did he stop.
He’d play and run around a lot, and then stop for a feeding. My arnaliaq got shy when
I told her to stop breast-feeding as she was really big now. Children who are breast-fed
don’t eat a lot of solid food if the mother has an abundance of milk. They don’t eat a lot
of solid food. That’s how it was with my children. Jaalu was the one who was breast-fed
the longest. When I told him he was too big, he became shy, and he didn’t want to be
breast-fed anymore. Even when he was old enough to pretend to be hunting, he was still
being breast-fed.
Life Stories – Saullu Nakasuk 85